Sports

5 college football stars snubbed from the College Football 27 cover

admin June 4, 2026

Bullet point summary by AI

EA Sports’ College Football 27 cover features three players, sparking debate over who deserved the spotlight more.
Two standout quarterbacks and a dynamic running back were notably left off, each bringing unique accolades and fan appeal.
The exclusion of these athletes sets the stage for a season where they can prove their worth and challenge the chosen cover stars.

Kewan Lacy, Dante Moore or Malachi Toney; one of these players will get hit with the infamous cover athlete curse after the trio was featured as the standard edition cover art for EA Sports’ College Football game. But were they the right choice? We’ll leave that up to you to decide. But we will dive into the five players that were snubbed. This isn’t just about the best players as much as the players that have the brand recognition to be featured.

The deluxe edition cover art featured a few more players, but EA Sports left a lot to be imagined about the players that could have graced the front of the next version of the game. Here are the five players that have a point to prove this season after being excluded as a cover athlete.

RB Ahmad Hardy, Missouri

Missouri Tigers running back Ahmad Hardy | Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Ahmad Hardy had a breakout season at Missouri, one people might forget about. College football running backs are always hard to get a read on because they usually don’t terrorize NFL defenses the same way they obliterate college ones. That said, Hardy has to be as legit as any of the top running backs in college football. He rushed for 1,647 yards and 16 touchdowns in 2025.

Maybe he doesn’t make the standard cover, but he very well should have been one of the deluxe cover athletes. It’s hard to argue who he should have replaced, though Hardy not being on the front cover feels like a setup for another breakout season, proving he’s one of college football’s best.

QB Darian Mensah, Miami

Regardless of how you feel about Darian Mensah and how he abused the modern era of the transfer portal this past winter, you have to respect that he’s one of the best quarterbacks in college football. In two years, he went from being an underrecruited quarterback that started as a redshirt freshman at Tulane to being the starter at a quarterback factory. Only Drew Mestemaker had more passing yards than him last year.

If Mensah was like Mestemaker and making his Power 4 debut this year, then maybe it’s worth waiting to see if he’s legit. There’s nothing else we need to see from Mensah. He finished the 2025 season with 3,973 passing yards and 34 touchdowns with just six interceptions. If he doesn’t go to the NFL Draft after this year, expect him to be on the cover of College Football 28.

QB Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss

Ole Miss Rebels quarterback Trinidad Chambliss | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

This almost felt too obvious to ignore. Yes, Chambliss burst onto the scene late, but him carrying Ole Miss through the College Football Playoff should have been more than enough to earn him cover athlete status. In fact, he looked better in the CFP than Kewan Lacy (who did make the cover this year). He beat the NCAA in an eligibility case to get awarded one more year. I’m sure logistically, because he wasn’t granted immediate eligibility, EA Sports didn’t want to delay the cover art waiting for his case to resolve.

We’ll use that as the only reason he’s not one of the cover athletes in the upcoming iteration of the virtual college football game. Hey, maybe he’ll dodge the cover athlete curse with his exclusion this year. If so, then maybe Ole Miss might have it in the cards this year to avenge last year’s semifinal loss to Miami.

QB Sam Leavitt, LSU

Arizona State Sun Devils quarterback Sam Leavitt | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

I wonder if the people in charge of the cover athlete decisions are anti-Lane Kiffin. It feels like Sam Leavitt had to be one of the players on the front. I get it. It’s a challenge going after the names with brand recognition vs. the actual good players. Leavitt arguably has both, even if the 2025 season wasn’t anything close to what he did in 2024, leading Arizona State to the College Football Playoff.

There is a lot of hype around Leavitt, especially because Kiffin is landing the perfect type of quarterback for him to instantly thrive at LSU. Now if things go awry, well, maybe the developers at Electronic Arts know some things we don’t. But if Leavitt builds on what’s already been a productive collegiate career, maybe they’ll feel some type of way about omitting one of the most talked-about players in the transfer portal.

EDGE Dylan Stewart, South Carolina

Dylan Stewart isn’t getting nearly the amount of attention he deserves. Don’t get me wrong, Colin Simmons is probably the best pass rusher in college football right now. But if there’s another that has a chance to be elite, it’s Dylan Stewart. Defensive players don’t get the love they deserve, and it would have been nice to see Stewart on the cover as well. Though South Carolina was abysmal last year, so it makes a lot of sense the Gamecocks were omitted from the cover.

Simmons and Notre Dame’s Leonard Moore are on the deluxe cover and the only defenders. Was there room for more? Possibly. Regardless, Stewart should have gotten the nod. Maybe that means South Carolina will be relevant again in 2026 because after a 2-0 start to the 2025 season, it all went downhill.